Outbreak of SARS Cov 2 B.1.1.7 Lineage After Vaccination in German Long Term Care
Outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 Lineage after Vaccination in Long-Term Care Facility, Germany, February–March 2021 Pinkus Tober-Lau,1 Tatjana Schwarz,1 David Hillus, Jana Spieckermann, Elisa T. Helbig, Lena J. Lippert, Charlotte Thibeault, Willi Koch, Leon Bergfeld, Daniela Niemeyer, Barbara Mühlemann, Claudia Conrad, Stefanie Kasper, Friederike Münn, Frank Kunitz, Terry C. Jones, Norbert Suttorp, Christian Drosten, Leif Erik Sander,2 Florian Kurth,2 Victor M. Corman2 One week after second vaccinations were administered, fi rst week after the second dose (3). Although break- an outbreak of B.1.1.7 lineage severe acute respiratory through infections have been reported, vaccinated syndrome coronavirus 2 infections occurred in a long- persons were at substantially lower risk for infection term care facility in Berlin, Germany, aff ecting 16/20 vac- and symptomatic disease (4,5). cinated and 4/4 unvaccinated residents. Despite consid- The variant of concern (VOC) B.1.1.7 rapidly erable viral loads, vaccinated residents experienced mild became the predominant lineage in Europe in 2021. symptoms and faster time to negative test results. Analyses estimated that B.1.1.7 has increased trans- missibility and a <0.7 higher reproduction number utbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (6). Neutralization activity of serum samples from Ocoronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in long-term care BNT162b2-vaccinated persons has been shown to facilities (LTCF) are of great concern and have been be slightly reduced against B.1.1.7 in cell culture (7), reported to have high case-fatality rates (1). Conse- but observational data from Israel suggest BNT162b2 quently, national vaccination strategies prioritize res- vaccination is effective against B.1.1.7 (8).
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